Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi has named George Koumendakos as its new general manager.
The Dutch national, who is fluent in three languages, brings 37 years of experience including 15 years as general manager in multiple five-star hotels around the world.
Having worked in 14 countries, Koumendakos was recently general manager at Sofitel Kuala Lumpur Damansara in Malaysia prior to joining Metropole Hanoi.
Edgar Terutung has been named the new business development director – Indonesia of TUI Blue Hotels & Resorts Asia. He will spearhead TUI Blue’s expansion in Indonesia in his new role.
He began his work experience in business development for local real estate developers in Indonesia, and subsequently joined the hotel and serviced apartment development at Ascott.
Before joining the team at TUI Blue, Terutung was regional director of development at Louvre Hotels Group in South-east Asia.
Centara Hotels & Resorts has appointed Francesco Pompilio as the new general manager of Centara Ras Fushi Resort & Spa Maldives.
He brings a wealth of international hotelier experience to his new role, having worked across prominent destinations including Italy, the UK, the UAE, and Vietnam for over two decades.
He was most recently general manager at Vinpearl Discovery Sealink Nha Trang in Vietnam.
Singapore has welcomed an influx of direct-selling companies opting to hold their large-scale corporate events and incentive trips to the city.
Such events so far this year include the Young Living APAC Convention 2023 (March 2023), Amway Managing Directors & Global Leadership Meeting (March 2023), as well as the Herbalife APAC Extravaganza 2023 (May 2023).
Herbalife Nutrition’s Herbalife APAC Extravaganza 2023 welcomed about 21,000 participants from countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, Korea, and Malaysia, and was the largest corporate meeting held in Singapore since the pandemic. Meanwhile, Young Living’s APAC Convention 2023 was the first in-person convention for brand partners post-pandemic and saw about 1,500 attendees, with attendees largely from Asia Pacific and the Americas.
These mid- to large-scale events have generated significant economic benefits for the local tourism industry, with spillover effects into the retail, attractions, hotels, and dining sectors. Moreover, local DMCs and event organisers were tasked with executing and coordinating the events.
As to why Amway selected Singapore as its meeting destination, Asha Gupta, regional president, Asia & chief strategy & corporate development officer, pointed to the Lion City’s well-connected geographical location, her world-class infrastructure and modern meeting amenities, reputation for safety and cleanliness, and wide range of leisure offerings.
Additionally, Singapore is home to Amway’s Global Business Innovation Hub and is the regional headquarters for Asia.
“Amway hosts events at many locations around the world. Our regional and international delegates are always excited when Singapore is picked as one of our venues because they know that what they get to experience here is nothing short of world-class.
“We enjoy a close working relationship with Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and local partners like Sentosa Development Corporation have always elevated the experience for the events that we have held here,” she added.
For Boyd Price, regional president of Young Living Asia Pacific, Singapore was selected due to its “easy access for brand partners in Asia-Pacific”, “strong reputation as a MICE destination”, and successful management of the pandemic.
That is how Singapore “naturally emerged as our first choice”, revealed Price.
Price shared: “Our brand partners and staff thoroughly enjoyed the convention and their stay. Many were impressed with the service and quality standards of the venues, hotels and service providers engaged for the convention. Our brand partners also had time to explore Singapore on their own alongside their business engagements, and brought home beautiful memories of the garden displays at the Flower Dome at Gardens by the Bay and the amazing selection of local hawker fare.”
On Singapore’s appeal as a business events hub for direct selling companies, Edward Koh, executive director, conventions, meetings & incentive travel, STB, told TTGmice: “The global direct selling industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the corporate meetings and incentives segment. According to the latest report by the World Federation of Direct Selling Association, the industry saw steady year-on-year growth from 2018 to 2021, driven by top-selling categories such as Health and Wellness, Cosmetics and Personal Care, and Household.”
Koh pointed out that the direct selling business model – characterised by strong personal networks and order fulfilment processes – has proven to be adept in withstanding challenging economic situations like the pandemic.
“In 2021, Asia-Pacific contributed the most to global direct-selling retail sales compared to other regions. In particular, Singapore witnessed higher growth rates than the Asia-Pacific average in terms of retail sales and sales force, with retail sales rising by about 15 per cent in 2021 compared to pre- pandemic levels in 2019,” he added.
Many more such groups are expected to arrive in Singapore from now until 2025, with three mid- to large-scale events from the direct selling industry. These will be Nuskin Korea 2024 Success Trip (April 2024), Amway China Leadership Seminar (August 2024), and Amway Japan PF24 Family Programme (March 2025).
Being a significant contributor to carbon emissions, the business events industry also plays a crucial role in accelerating decarbonisation efforts, according to CTW Conference speakers at the recent IT&CMA 2023 in Bangkok.
Referring to Sustainable Travel International data, Manish Raj, head – strategy & business of Lithium Urban Technologies said tourism was responsible for about 11 per cent of the world’s GHG (greenhouse gases) emissions and is projected to almost double by 2050.
Srinivas Rao, head of global TMC engagement APAC, Amadeus, said that there is an urgency to address Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) issues, and reduce carbon emissions.
“Over the last two or three years, we can see the impact of climate change. It is impacting cities and countries. (People now) understand that this is impacting the world and unless corporates and individuals come together and find a solution, this will be very difficult to mitigate,” Rao said.
Fortunately, the pandemic has helped to change people’s mindsets, who are individually looking at how they can reduce their carbon emissions. In turn, companies have been pushed to change the way it can do business sustainably.
Daniel Chua, co-founder of MICEcarbon said: “Having been in the (meeting industry) business for a long time and having seen clients evolve, I think we all need to evolve along with them and lead the way in some cases.”
Rao shared that a recent Amadeus survey revealed that travellers now are increasingly asking for sustainable options like taking the train, or driving an electric vehicle. At the same time, travellers are also questioning the transparency around the sustainability policies that an organisation has.
“There’s a lot of conversation going on at the employee level,” he said. “We also understand that our customers are at different stages in their sustainability journies. So giving them one solution may not be the right fit. Instead, with multiple choices we can then choose which one is the right solution,” he said.
Internally, Amadeus has also taken steps to establish three strategic pillars. The first pillar is to transform the business, where Amadeus is aiming to be carbon neutral by 2025 instead of 2030. The second pillar was to provide customers with the necessary support to help them achieve their sustainability goals, while the final approach was to collaborate with other ESG companies and various industry partners to help achieve the goals.
Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, or the University of Canterbury (UC), will host the 8th Adaptation Futures Conference (AF2025) in 2025, which is part of the United Nations World Adaptation Science Programme (WASP).
The conference is set to convene 1,500 of the world’s leading network of scientists, practitioners, governments, industry and community, youth, educators and communicators at Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre. Delegates will join AF2025 both online and in person to discuss climate adaptation.
AF2025 includes six special events to showcase and advance knowledge in:
The conference will provide a unique opportunity to identify knowledge gaps and implementation needs to advance climate change adaptation in an increasingly complex world.
UC professors Steven Ratuva, Bronwyn Hayward and Shaun Ogilvie played a vital role in securing the bid for the conference and are co-convenors of AF2025.
This hosting announcement was made by WASP secretariat head Maarten Kappelle at the Adaptation Futures conference in Montréal, Canada.
His announcement was followed by an official host handover led by representatives of the Indigenous People of Canada and mana whenua, Ngāi Tūāhuriri from New Zealand. Chair of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu Lisa Tumahai and deputy high commissioner of New Zealand to Canada Kirsty Pelenur formally accepted the host handover of the conference.
Tourism New Zealand’s chief executive René de Monchy added: “Aotearoa New Zealand’s tourism sector is committed to supporting the transition to a more sustainable and regenerative future. Events like these bring the best and brightest together to find climate-resilient solutions for our communities. Hosting conferences is a key part of Tourism New Zealand’s strategy to attract high-quality visitors who positively contribute to our environment, communities, culture and economy.”
The highly successful Cannes in Cairns event for the advertising, marketing and media industry is expected to attract 2,000 delegates in 2024 after numbers doubled this year from the 650 who attended the inaugural Cairns event in 2022.
Dan Uglow, co-founder of event organiser The Misfits Media Company, said that the newly-upgraded Cairns Convention Centre, and unique offsite venues such as historical oil tanks in lush tropical gardens, allowed the event to “cater to an audience that had been to the region previously and loved getting away from the southern cold”.
Indigenous themes were central to the 2023 event – that coincided with National Reconciliation Week – which started with a Welcome to Gimuy (Cairns) by local Yidinydji representatives from Indigenous cultural group Minjil.
Diverse experiences for delegates also included a Palm Cove beach dinner at Nu Nu, the exclusive Cannes in Cairns Yacht with Parisienne DJ Safire, a VIP dinner at Hemmingway’s Brewery, cocktail parties at Crystalbrook Riley’s rooftop bar Rocco, days of seafood on the iconic Prawn Star, and a Tik Tok takeover of the Cairns Party Bus.
“The event’s wow moment was bringing delegates together for the Pinterest-sponsored Pinchella Welcome Party at the Tanks Arts Centre, an historical venue featuring three WWII oil tanks within the Cairns Botanic Gardens,” Uglow added.
The space was transformed into a “whimsical neon wonderland” featuring indigenous foods catered by Nu Nu, and entertainment by Australian band King Stingray.
Tourism Tropical North Queensland general manager of partnerships and events, Rosie Douglas, pointed out: “Successfully increasing delegates numbers each year in the same destination shows the diversity of our destination’s offsite event venues, world-class catering options, and the professionalism of the business events industry in Cairns and Great Barrier Reef.”
“With increased direct flights from Singapore, Haneda, Tokyo, Osaka and Auckland Cannes in Cairns has the opportunity to grow delegate numbers from across the Asia-Pacific region.”
Event networking technology firm Jublia has entered into a partnership with MICEcarbon, a platform targeted at business events industry stakeholders to better understand and meaningfully reduce and offset their carbon emissions through verified and verifiable carbon offset projects.
MICEcarbon is a business events industry targeted solution that allows the transaction of carbon offsets from as low as 10kg to multiples of one million tonnes of carbon through an easy-to-use and integrable system that provides end-to-end transparency and traceability on the origin of the carbon offsets.
Daniel Chua, co-founder of MICEcarbon, said: “Strategically bridging the events industry and the carbon markets will be of growing importance in the near future to combat climate change, given the large numbers of people the business events industry works with on both sides of the client-supplier equation, and having reach to all levels ranging from C-suites all the way through to the average event attendee.
“By working with more business industry stakeholders, we hope that more people become more conscious of practicing sustainability in their daily lives, and are also aware of genuine carbon offsets projects they can support via a platform that offers ease and transparency in the process.”
Errol Lim, chief operating officer of Jublia, shared that the company is already “transforming events into fully paperless processes” with features such as AI Maps, and Jublia Scan which physical business cards.
“Our collaboration with MICEcarbon extends this commitment beyond our platform. Together, we empower the events industry to reduce carbon emissions and support genuine offset projects. This partnership signifies more than just a win-win; it’s a transformative journey toward a sustainable future. We’re excited about the possibilities it holds and invite more partners to join us.”
For event organisers, accessibility is critical to ensure that as many people as possible can attend and that all attendees can fully participate and engage with events. However, organising an accessible event can be challenging, especially when faced with resource constraints.
1. Plan ahead and set priorities
The earlier you plan, the more opportunity you have to add accessibility to your events. Start by creating a checklist of accessibility needs and prioritise them based on their impact. Identify essential accessibility features that are critical for your attendee’s needs and the event’s success. By focusing on these priorities, you can allocate your limited resources effectively and ensure that the most critical accessibility requirements are met.
2. Utilise volunteer support
Volunteers can play a significant role in making your event accessible while keeping costs down. Reach out to local disability organisations or community groups and seek their support in recruiting volunteers and providing advice. Often, university students can be recruited in exchange for an event ticket. These volunteers can assist with tasks such as guiding attendees, providing assistance with mobility, or facilitating communication. Ensure proper training and clear communication with your volunteers to ensure they understand the importance of accessibility and their specific responsibilities.
3. Make use of digital accessibility tools
Digital accessibility tools are invaluable in making your event inclusive. One such solution is to implement AI-generated live captioning, a cost-effective option that can easily be integrated into your event’s setup. The use of next-generation AI solutions can deliver accurate and real-time captions and translated captions in multiple languages. This solution ensures that attendees can follow along and participate effectively.
4. Partner with sponsors and local businesses
Collaboration with sponsors and local businesses can be a win-win situation when it comes to event accessibility. Approach potential sponsors and local businesses with a compelling case for supporting your accessibility efforts. Highlight the benefits of aligning their brand with inclusivity and offer various partnership opportunities. Sponsors and local businesses can contribute resources such as funding, equipment, or expertise, helping you enhance the accessibility of your event without straining your budget.
5. Promote inclusivity through communication
Clear and inclusive communication is vital to ensure that attendees are aware of the accessibility features and services available at your event. Provide detailed information about accessibility on your event website, registration forms, and promotional materials. Utilise multiple communication channels, such as social media, email newsletters, and announcements during the event. By proactively communicating your commitment to accessibility, you create a welcoming environment for attendees.
In conclusion, creating an accessible event doesn’t have to be a daunting task when you have budget limitations. By following these five tips, you can make significant strides in enhancing the accessibility of your event without compromising your financial resources. Increasing event accessibility creates better experiences for the maximum number of attendees and widens your event’s reach.
The 306-key Meliá Hanoi has recently renovated and revitalised several key areas of the hotel, including the meeting and function areas, top suites, and fitness spaces.
The Level Meeting Room, available exclusively for The Level guests, has completely new furnishings, along with more ergonomic chairs and artwork. The larger business events areas, including the Grand Ballroom and its dedicated pre-function area along with the Thang Long Ballroom, have new carpets, furniture, and a new interior design with a crisp white colour palette.
The Function Room space, ideal for intimate meetings, now features an entirely new interior with nature-inspired panelling framing the space. Meliá Hanoi’s meeting facilities comprise two ballrooms, 10 function rooms and a total capacity to host up to 1,200 guests.
The top two keys, the 135m2 Grand Suite and 168m2 Presidential Suite were both re-imagined with more contemporary, regal furnishings, a fresh colour palette of soft greys, taupe, creams and gold, new state-of-the art entertainment systems, and floor-to-ceiling windows that make the most of the city views.
Elsewhere in the hotel, the open-air swimming pool has a new deck, while the fitness centre has been remodelled with new cardio equipment.
One of the most significant changes was also a complete overhaul of all the property’s gastronomic offerings and restaurant interiors.
In the lobby area, Garbo Bar draws inspiration from the golden era of 1950s Hollywood with its new gold and emerald green bar counter and selection of classic cocktails, tapas, and Meliá’s signature Spanish-inspired afternoon tea.
Mosaico, Meliá Hanoi’s all-day restaurant offers a breakfast buffet ranging from pastries baked in-house to a healthy juice bar, and new live cooking stations.
The former El Oriental Restaurant is set to emerge soon as Cham Restaurant serving sophisticated Cantonese dim sum and Asian noodle dishes in a hip, modern space. The new chef de cuisine, Lê Minh Thái, has 27 years of experience in dim sum and Cantonese cooking.
Finally, a new concept that marries a cocktail bar and luxury barbershop, The Ministry of Men (part of the House of Babaard group), also launched in the hotel in May.
